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Uhuru ‘settles’ small debt he owed chewing gum hawker


A city hawker who has spent more than one year demanding payment of a Sh40 debt from President Uhuru Kenyatta has finally been paid his dues.

Dennis Murimi Wachira, a 22-year-old hawker in Nairobi, offered President Kenyatta two chewing gums during a political rally late last year.

He has since spent slightly more than a year demanding Sh40, which he says is the cost of the chewing gums he offered the president.

Friday though was his lucky day after Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho invited him to his Harambee House office and settled the small debt on behalf of the president.


In a brief meeting that was captured on camera, PS Kibicho gave the hawker a Sh50 note and demanded for change, which the hawker reluctantly gave him.

When asked what else he wanted done for him, Murimi said he is desperate to find meaningful employment that would enable him provide for his family.

“I’ve wanted to meet the president since that first encounter so that I can tell him my problems. We are four in our family and I’m the soul bread winner. I need a good job to cater for my family’s needs,” he told Kibicho.

SMALL DEBT

Ironically, his plea to the PS was in stark contrast his most recent public outburst captured on camera by a local media house in which he categorically said he doesn’t need a job and that he only wants the president to settle the small debt.

“I don’t need a job from the president. There a no jobs in Kenya for the youth. I’m only demanding my Sh40 which the president owes me,” he said in that interview.

However, at the end of video of his meeting with Kibicho, Murimi concludes by thanking the president for settling the debt, although its unclear whether he was indeed given a job offer or any other token apart from Sh40.

When Nairobi News sought find out more, the youthful hawker declined to reveal the finer details of his meeting with Kibicho.